Do It! Marketing Blog: Marketing for Smart People™

Had a terrific marketing mentor call with a new client who has made MILES of progress in the short time since we started working together.

During our last conversation, I praised his action-orientation, and the great progress he’s made in recent weeks. He acknowledged how much better he felt about his marketing, positioning, and programs.

But then he asked me a powerful question - “David, if I’ve made this much progress, why am I not making more money?”

I gave him my initial responses (it's still early in the game, not enough prospecting activity, no consistent sales process) but since then I’ve developed many more reasons that speakers, authors, coaches, and consultants aren’t making the money that they know they could and SHOULD be making.

Here are the top 17 reasons YOU might not be making the money you want and deserve. Do a quick self-check with the ones that resonate the most with YOU:

You’re great at delivering your product or service but you’re terrible at marketing and sales

You’re not getting the right kind of marketing or sales help in time – or at all!

You’re not delegating or hiring part-time help to take care of the “intelligent gruntwork.”

You don’t have a business plan/goal/vision/destination in mind, including failure to plan for failure!

You’re not connecting with prospects on their most relevant, urgent, and expensive issues

You don’t have a defined sales process and find yourself winging it almost every time

Your proactive outbound prospecting plan consists of sitting by the phone waiting for it to ring. (Not good!)

You’re forgetting that we live in the Attention Economy - first you must earn your prospects’ attention and only THEN will you have a chance to earn their money

You’re relying too much on one marketing channel (email, social media, direct mail, networking) and your prospects are starting to see you as an annoying pest, not a welcome guest

You’re not adding enough tangible sources of excellence to your marketing mix - in other words, you’re failing to create marketing materials that are too good to throw away!

You underestimate the amount of time and/or money it will take to grow your business successfully. Remember, not all things are going to work the first time. Or the tenth. Plan for experimentation, testing, and thousands of small adjustments along the way

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p.s. Want to make sure your business is focused on what matters most to maximize your influence AND income?

Download your copy of the Do It! Marketing Manifesto for free right here.

When I first started my online business, I had no idea what a business coach was, let alone why I needed one. I was much more concerned with the technical aspects of building a website, launching a podcast, and figuring out what social media was all about.

What I didn’t realize at the time was that hiring a business coach would’ve saved me hours each week, and not just when it came to learning to format my Twitter profile.

I learned that a business coach is crucial to speeding up the learning curve, connecting with your target market, and avoiding expensive mistakes that new online business owners tend to make. In essence, hiring a coach will get you in the game faster, keep you there longer, and let you focus on building your brand and connecting with customers.

So how do you find the business coach of your dreams?

1. Clarify your values

What matters most to you in your business, and as a human being? For me, giving back is a huge part of why I do what I do. When looking for a coach, it was important to me to work with someone who shared that value. I didn’t care if they were the most well-respected business coach in the world; if their values didn’t match mine, I didn’t want to work with them.

Your values don’t necessarily have to be personal or moral in nature - they might include your working style, or what’s most important to you in a professional relationship.

For example, do you value someone who gives it to you straight, or someone who is more nurturing? Are you a go-with-the-flow type of person, or do you prefer to have everything planned out?

Figure out which values are most important to you in a working relationship before beginning your search for the perfect coach or mentor.

2. Set expectations

What do you expect to get out of working with a business coach?

Would you like a coach who…

will answer frantic phone calls in the middle of the night?

meets with you for hours at a time?

conducts sessions strictly over Skype?

follows up with you even after you’ve completed your sessions?

Start to think about your expectations of the relationship, including how much time you want to spend working with your coach and what you expect them to teach you. Some people may want a good listener, while others may want to be told exactly what to do and how to do it. What’s your preference?

You should also consider how you want to work with your coach:

Would you prefer…

One-on-one power sessions?

Mastermind groups?

Live webinars?

Weekly phone calls?

If you’d rather be face to face than on the phone, look for a local coach who can meet with you in person. If you’re busy with a full time job and can barely squeeze in a weekly webinar, find a coach who can work around your schedule.

You should also clearly state the goal of working with a coach. How will you know if the coaching relationship has been successful?

Make a list of exactly what you want help with, and what you want to achieve. You might want something as basic as help setting up your website, or something as esoteric as defining the feeling of your brand. Get specific so you can find the perfect person to deliver what you need.

3. Create a budget

You can spend $25 on a business coach or $25,000. What’s your budget?

Keep in mind that the most expensive mentor in the world doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting the best mentor in the world.

Many business coaches offer monthly packages that include weekly phone calls and email support. Generally speaking, one-on-one coaching will be more expensive than group coaching, but you’ll receive less attention.

An experienced, well-known business coach might charge upwards of $500/hour for his or her time. If you fall in love with a coach and find out their price point is too high, don’t give up right away. Contact them first to see if they have a payment plan or a program that’s within your price range.

4. Schedule an interview

Once you’ve found someone who shares your values, meets your expectations, and falls within your budget, it’s time to set up an interview.

If the business coach you’re interested in is highly successful, you may feel intimidated and fall into what I like to call the “pick me!” mentality. Remember that there has to be chemistry on both sides in order for a relationship to work. If this coach is recommended by everyone but you get a bad vibe from them, it’s not worth the investment.

Prepare a list of questions for your interview, and be sure to take note of how you feel during the interview. Do you feel listened to? Does the coach seem confident that they can help you?

A good business coach will be extremely interested in hearing all the details of where you are now and where you want to go - without those details, he or she has no way of knowing if the coaching relationship will be a good fit.

Finally, make sure that you like the person you’re about to hire. They may have all the knowledge and expertise in the world, but if you dread spending an hour on the phone with them, you’ll be wasting your money.

People who are seriously considering engaging the services of a professional coach or consultant usually ask many questions about what the advisor “will do or should do” in order to make the coaching relationship work for the client. This is certainly reasonable and understandable.

However, there are also several “prerequisites” or standards that the client must meet for the engagement to produce optimum results.

Unfortunately, these criteria are rarely discussed during the “contracting process” between consultant and client.

There are at least six behaviors and attitudes which clients need to embrace to help make any coaching engagement successful:

Treat the consulting relationship as a real priority in your life (fully-invested; not an “afterthought” or a distraction)

Be coachable (open-minded, trusting, non-defensive, willing to go a bit outside of your comfort zone, flexible, committed to the process)

Hold to your commitments and be “self-accountable” (with the support and structure of your coach)

In my work as an Executive Career Coach, I make it clear (either explicitly or implicitly) to prospective clients that “this is a two-way street.” Of course, I commit 100% to doing my part to the best of my ability.

But the client also has a vital role to play in the consulting relationship, with important commitments and responsibilities (listed above).

Discussing these items candidly before getting started in a new coaching engagement has proven to be a productive exercise, and it has been mutually beneficial.

Such a conversation “screens out” prospective clients who are not a good fit for my programs; it empowers clients to take full responsibility for their part of the work; it sets clear expectations and eliminates incorrect assumptions; and it allows me to hold my clients accountable when they inevitably experience resistance or avoidance during the coaching process. In other words, this dialogue clears the way for clients to achieve their goals more efficiently and productively – which makes everybody happy!

Entrepreneurs who START a business typically exhibit these traits:

Self-Reliant - they want to know they're 100% responsible for their own results

Hard-working - they're not afraid of hard work, long hours, and the toughest boss they'll ever have (see #1 above!)

Entrepreneurs who SUCCEED in business typically exhibit these traits:

Dream big but dream focused. They want to create something that is substantial and that makes a real contribution. But they are also focused enough and disciplined enough to distinguish between opportunities and distractions.

Lifelong student. They're willing to learn, experiment and try new things. They regularly challenge their own assumptions and explore outside their comfort zone.

Willing to ask for help, delegate, and outsource. Most entrepreneurs are better at helping than being helped. But if you’re not willing to ask for help or delegate to others, you severely limit your growth.

Will break through obstacles. Entrepreneurs always get stuck. Whether in dire straits financially, facing a tough new competitor, or dealing with internal headaches, the entrepreneurial journey is almost always turbulent. Successful entrepreneurs expect this and have learned to "secure their own oxygen mask before assisting others."

Resilient. They face disappointment with courage. And more important, they bounce back. Again and again and again. And again!!

Have patience. Things rarely work out for entrepreneurs as quickly as they'd like. Successful entrepreneurs have come to understand that sometimes the "shortcut" is the long way.

What do YOU think? Please use the COMMENTS section below to share your own advice, insights, and recommendations on what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur...

Have you ever wondered why your prospects DON’T buy from you? Especially when you can see as plain as the nose on their face that they DESPERATELY need what you do and could benefit from it HUGELY?

Well… as with most marketing - it’s not about YOU.

It’s about THEM.

And your prospects are not actually idiots - but IDIOTS is a good acronym for the six biggest reasons that your prospects DON’T buy.

I’ve done a lot of thinking about this because MANY of my 1-on-1 marketing coaching clients experience precisely this problem when we begin working together.

And solving it for them immediately puts money in their pocket. Just like it will for YOU.

Here are the six parts of the IDIOTS acronym:

Ignorant of their problem

Denial of their situation

Indifferent to your brand

Overwhelmed with choices

Terrified of making a mistake

Suspicious of marketers/salespeople

Let’s unpack these one at a time. And you’ll also get specific ideas for what to DO to punch through each of these six obstacles and close more sales - better sales - faster sales.

1. Ignorant of their problem. They “don’t know what they don’t know” about what’s wrong, missing, broken, too slow, too inefficient. And you can’t sell someone on the fact that they have a problem. Never works. Just pisses ‘em off.

What to DO: Use the following language: “Is This You?” and then cleanly and crisply articulate their pains, problems, heartaches, headaches, challenges, and gaps in language that they will instantly recognize - because you’re entering the conversation that’s already happening in their head every single day.

2. Denial of their situation. “Me? Problem? No, no, no - that’s impossible.” This is actually a WORSE problem than mere ignorance. It’s awareness plus a determination to avoid, deny or minimize the problem. This is also commonly referred to as the “head in the sand” syndrome.

What to DO: Call out the elephant in the room (the denial) and skillfully weave in stories of other people in similar situations who emerged from their denial, made some tough choices, and came out victorious in the end. In order to avoid insulting them, use language such as, “Many folks in your situation prefer to address the surface issues rather than deal with the problem head-on. That makes perfect sense because this can be messy, expensive, and painful. Using our [product/service/whatever you’re selling], our clients find that it’s not nearly as bad as they feared - and once it’s done, everything gets better in the areas of X, Y. and Z."

3. Indifferent to your brand. “Who are you again? And from what company?” Early in my entrepreneurial career as a marketing speaker and marketing coach, I called on a client and we had a very cordial 20-minute meeting. He seemed ready to move ahead. Until he thought to ask me this question, “If you’re so good, how come I’ve never heard of you before?” OUCH! 12 years ago I didn’t have a good answer. (Today, I would take a copy of my book from my briefcase and slap him upside the head with it before leaving an autographed copy on his desk and seeing myself out.)

What to DO: Buyers don’t buy you, your product, your service, or your brand sight unseen. So the answer is easy: GET SEEN! Use 3PR strategies to maximize your influence and impact in the right places in front of the right prospects for the right reasons. Keep showing up as a person (and company) “of value” and soon, they’ll be coming to YOU, not vice versa.

What to DO: Market to the LAZY - What can you OFFER that’s easy, fast, and free? Market to the BUSY - What can you DO to be heard above the noise? Market to the BEFUDDLED - What can you SAY that will immediately resonate with your best prospects because it shows that you “get” them?

5. Terrified of making a mistake. Yup - your buyers are risk-averse. Scaredy cats, in fact. As they should be because they’ve probably been burned by people who looked a lot like YOU in the not-too-distant past. What should you offer them? Guarantees, success stories, testimonials, and proof.

What to DO: Show them specific names, specific companies, and indisputable points of proof that you have a strong, clear and compelling track record of making those people happy. Let's face it - one BIG reason people don't want to buy is because they're putting their own relational capital (aka reputation) on the line. And that's risky. If you can remove the risk of the sale, you will open the floodgates to getting more and better clients for life. Hint: They won't believe YOU. They WILL believe your clients, references, referrals, and people who have given you money in the past and been thrilled to do so. Print up a sheet called "Client Success Stories." Put in 5-7 specific success stories with the right names to drop and the right stories to tell. Bingo! Instant sales breakthrough.

6. Suspicious of marketers/salespeople. Yes, of course they are. And you are, too. Salespeople and marketers have a long-standing (and sometimes accurate) reputation as liars, shysters, slimeballs, and fraudsters. That’s the stereotype you’re up against no matter how expensive your suit, how specialized your services, or how sincere your approach.

What to DO: Position yourself not as a salesperson OR a marketer. Position yourself as an expert - a thought-leader - a trusted advisor. In my marketing keynotes and seminars, I show a slide that has this text in a giant 288-point font: VALUE + TIME = TRUST. That’s the key. Deliver value - relevant insights, resources, advice, recommendations. Do this over time and become known as a person of value - and a company of value - and then over time, your prospects will begin to seek you out and you’ll be positioned as the obvious go-to choice for what you’re offering.

That’s the antidote to prospect IDIOTS who don’t buy from you. (Again, no offense - remember, it’s an acronym!)

Want to apply for your Speaker Strategy Call to see how you can IMPLEMENT some of these concepts right away? Apply for your call here.

Watch this short video and see if you are making these same sales mistakes...

[Click the "Enlarge" icon in the lower right corner to watch full screen]

Scary, right?

Needy, desperate, pushy, salesperson-centered tactics are so obvious and easy to spot when OTHER people (especially spammers) do them to us.

But how easy is it (and probably imperceptible to you) to fall into the same mode with YOUR own prospects, clients, customers, and buyers?

Stop chasing.

Stop hounding.

Stop bugging.

Stop "following up."

Start engaging.

Start inviting.

Start offering.

Start adding genuine value.

That's how professionals win!

p.s. If you want to grow your marketing, sales, and business development muscles, we still have a few open seats for the Simple Marketing Success 10-Week Virtual Bootcamp experience that starts October 8, 2013. Let me know you're interested (email or call me 610.716.5984) and I'll forward you the application materials and program guidelines right away.

There are only three problems that you, as a small business owner, entrepreneur or professional service provider, are ever going to be in a position to solve.

You may sell the world’s greatest widgets… You may have patented the most efficient doo-dad your industry has ever seen… Your flagship service may be the most effective on the planet with the only 100% bulletproof guarantee in the business…

Hard truth:

None of your prospects has a widget problem

None of your prospects has a doo-dad deficiency

None of your prospects stay up at night searching for a bulletproof guaranteed service

Let’s reframe your sales conversations as a delicate balancing act of investigating your prospect’s most important priorities and connecting your product or service to solving those specific problems or advancing those specific goals.

For the executives and decision-makers you’re selling to, at any given moment in time, their priorities might fall into one of three categories: Solving people problems, process problems, or profit problems. Which of these 63 sales triggers do you use the most? (Please use the COMMENTS area below to chime in...)

People Problems

People problems come in all shapes and sizes, but here’s a starter list so you can probe them more intelligently during your next sales conversation with a prospect:

Recruiting top talent

Retention of top talent

Employee engagement

Recognition and reward

Staff utilization

Leadership

Teamwork

Communication

Coaching

Collaboration

Succession

Silos and turf wars

Gossip, gab and the grapevine

Delegation

Micromanagement

Perfectionism

Negativity

Entitlement

Arrogance

Complacency

Process Problems

Process problems show up as inefficiencies, gaps, missed opportunities, too much wasted time or effort, too many steps, too much waste, too much bureaucracy or paperwork or too many layers between customer and company.

There were entire industries built around business process innovation and a handful of fads from the 1950’s to the 1990’s didn’t help – the total quality movement, business process re-engineering, outsourcing, insourcing, rightsizing, you name it.

Let’s cut to the chase and catalog a brief list of potential sources of process problems that you may want to discuss with your prospect in order to get their attention focused on the desired impact of your products or services.

Accounting

Billing

Call Centers

Contracting

Customer Service

Delivery

Distribution

Engineering

Facility management

Finance

Information Systems

Innovation

Inventory management

Manufacturing

Marketing

Operations

Payroll

Product development

Regulatory compliance

Research and development

Sales

Strategic planning

Workforce diversity

Profit Problems

Profit problems come in many shapes and sizes.

What’s important is that when you are marketing and selling your products and services that you do NOT overlook this vitally important problem that is NEVER far from the mind of any serious prospect.

Often placed at the end of a chain reaction of internal and external variables (where your products and services come into play), when you talk about solving your customers’ profitability problems, the outcomes almost always end up with YOU using the following “so that” phrases:

So that you sell more…

So that you sell more often…

So that you sell at full price…

So that you avoid discounting…

So that you open new markets…

So that you expand your product line…

So that you cut costs…

So that you manufacture and distribute more efficiently…

So that you speed up time to market…

So that you cross-sell…

So that you up-sell…

So that you open new channels…

So that you raise prices…

So that you boost your margins…

So that your per unit cost goes down…

So that you franchise…

So that you license…

So that your stock price goes up…

So that your revenues increase...

So that you conserve more cash…

Use these 63 checkpoints and you’ll be better equipped to isolate your prospect’s real issues - and you’ll more quickly identify the “problem behind the problem” and position your products and services in the context of solving the root cause of your prospect’s current challenges.

Do THAT and your sales conversations will become more successful in the short term and much more profitable in the long term.